Fourstars Allstar bypasses Damascus

Fourstars Allstar, the $1.5 million turf earner who has had a love-hate relationship with Maryland racing during his six-year career, will be a no-show tomorrow in Pimlico's Damascus Handicap despite being the 120-pound high weight and likely favorite.

A spokesman for trainer Leo O'Brien said yesterday that the 7-year-old horse, who is stabled at Belmont Park, will race instead in the $100,000 Cliff Hanger Handicap tomorrow night at the Meadowlands. Two other Damascus entries, Older but Smarter and Brave Note, are also cross-entered in the Meadowlands race.

Fourstars Allstar started his career with a promising second-place finish in the 1990 Laurel Futurity at Laurel Park, but twice finished last (in 1991 and 1993) in the Washington D.C. International.

NOTE: Longtime Maryland trainer Alec Bullock died Tuesday at the Meridian Health Center, where he had lived for the past three years. He was 91. For decades, Bullock was a fixture at Pimlico Race Course with his racing string, which was composed largely of homebreds that he had raised at his White Way Farm in Lutherville.